Part-Time Lawyers Overwhelmingly Female

Working part-time is an option few attorneys take, and the vast majority of those who do are women.

According to figures compiled by the National Association for Law Placement, 5.6 percent of U.S. attorneys work part-time, and about 74 percent of them are women. That represents only a slight increase from the previous year, when 5.4 percent of attorneys worked part-time and 75 percent were women.

Unfortunately, “part-time” is still code for “mommy-track.” Until successful men start working “part-time” (and in some firms, 40 hours a week is “part-time”) women who do so (more likely than not) will be viewed as less ambitious than their full-time counterparts. Too many lawyers define success by reference to the model male worker, who had/has limited responsibilities for child-rearing and household management.

Yes, there are many success stories to contradict my view, but we haven’t come far enough yet.